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On Sunday, a man was rescued after falling into the water at the V&A Waterfront while on Tuesday an elderly hiker’s body was lifted from Lion’s Head.
A man fell into the harbour from the quay at Victoria and Alfred (V&A) Waterfront on Sunday, March 5, and was fortunately rescued.
Thankfully, NSRI Table Bay skippers were in the middle of their routine training exercises out at sea at the time the incident occurred, which was around 1PM.
As soon as they received a MOB (man overboard) alert, they were able to rush over and rescue the man before things escalated.
In fact, the rescue team were doing their last ‘at sea’ training exercise which so happened to be a MOB exercise. Fortunately, they recognised immediately that the alert was a ‘real world emergency’ as the code word RABBIT was initiated, SAPeople reported:
According to the NSRI, “RABBIT is a code word used during exercises when a real world emergency occurs which automatically cancels the exercise and the emergency takes immediate action”.
The NSRI team scooted over to the man who had fallen into the water after the skipper of the cruise charter boat Escape Cat initiated the real MOB alert.
All the appropriate rescue authorities were on the scene, including the WC Government Health EMS and ER24 ambulance services as well as V&A Security.
The NSRI medics initiated medical checks on the man, who was at least found in a stable condition. As a precaution transported to the hospital by EMS ambulance for further medical evaluation.
Sadly, an elderly hiker didn’t have as much luck while he was out walking atop Lion’s Head on Tuesday morning.
IOL reported that the volunteer group, Wilderness Search And Rescue (WSAR) along with a dedicated team of professionals assisted SAPS in the recovery of the body of the 79-year-old man from the mountainside.
“According to information from scene, the 79-year-old hiker had been found unconscious on a section of the hiking trail near the summit of Lion’s Head. His hiking companions immediately called WSAR. A team on board the Western Cape Department of Health EMS/ Air Mercy Service (AMS) rescue helicopter was flown to the scene and hoisted down to the patient’s location.
“On arrival the paramedic found that the patient had not survived. The body of the deceased was placed into a stretcher and hoisted up into the helicopter, before being flown to a nearby landing zone and handed over to SAPS,” WSAR said in a statement.
WSAR spokesperson, David Nel, extended condolences to the family and friends of the deceased and reminds everyone to save the emergency contact number – 021 937 0300 – in case.
